


Probable Cause(s of Doom and Gloom)

by delighted



Series: A Cure for Doom and Gloom [3]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 01:49:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6033610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part three of my “Doom and Gloom” series (ok, there, I’ve finally admitted it... it’s a series.)</p><p>Steve and Danny maybe begin to get a little bit at some of their issues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tuesday

**Author's Note:**

> A little note about the timeline for this series:
> 
> In my head, Episode 13 and therefore also the original “Doom and Gloom” was on a Sunday. I had them take the next day off, so that would have been the Monday, which was Part Two: “(A Little Less) Doom and Gloom.” Part Three takes us through the rest of that week-- chapters Tuesday through Friday, posted on their respective days.
> 
> Also, just a little note that this story is not in the same timeline as Episode 14. That episode gave us new information about the state of Danny's and Steve's relationships at the moment, and I wrote this story before that episode aired.

Steve hadn’t had to wake Danny to come sit on the beach while he swam. Danny’d actually been awake first, in the too-bright sunshine, and was watching Steve while he still slept. But, not for long, because Steve had meant it when he’d said it would be early. Repeating the order of the previous morning, Steve put coffee on and went to swim while Danny showered. Danny brought coffee out for Steve, like he had the day before, and he was rewarded with a salty sweet kiss on the cheek, which didn’t make him blush, nope.

They grabbed leftovers for their lunch, and with the promise of malasadas “just this once” for breakfast, Steve got Danny out the door with surprising speed. Danny changed quickly once they got to his place, and as he looked around, he started a mental list of what he’d pack that evening when they came back by to get stuff.

Malasadas procured, they headed to the office. Steve’s morning schedule had them in before Kono and Chin, so they had some time together to sort through how they might play what they’d decided to do. Well, Danny wanted to. Steve... not so much.

“They’ll figure it out,” Danny warned Steve.

Steve was playing it blissfully either “I don’t care” or “Naw, they won’t,” Danny wasn’t sure which. “So, they do. Let them. They won’t say anything.”

“Uh, Steve,” Danny was amused by his partner’s cluelessness sometimes. “Yeah, they will. Are you kidding me? They’ll lap it up like cream.”

Steve rolled his eyes at Danny. “What are you even...?” But, he was stopped, maybe by the nervous expression on Danny’s face, or maybe the way he was kind of bouncing.

“Too much sugar,” Steve scolded, taking the bag of malasadas away from Danny, who resisted the urge to grab them back. Ok, maybe he was a little anxious. And maybe the sugar was making it worse. He pushed Steve to sit down, and tried to get his point across.

“Look, I’m just saying. They are going to notice something is up, and they are going to comment, poke, prod, pry, whatever.” He was trying not to whine, he really was. “I’m just saying we need to have something we are ready to say when they do.”

Danny may as well have been talking to the wall, because Steve just smiled—well, smirked—and whispered “Let ‘em.” And, kissing Danny on the cheek again, got up and left the office, taking the malasadas with him.

Danny sighed, rolled his eyes, threw his arms in the air, and mumbled “Great, just great.”

Fortunately, Chin and Kono both were still really distracted by Sunday’s happenings, and the team spent most of the morning dealing with all of that anyway. Danny managed some time alone with Kono, having stolen the malasadas back from Steve while he’d been distracted with Chin, and the two of them sat in her office over coffee and some much needed sugar while she confided in him how the whole experience had been for her. She was touched when Danny told her how Steve had been so upset by their non-communication, and that was why they’d wound up finding them just in time.

“You’re good for him, you know,” Kono said softly. “He has those instincts, but it’s like you channel them for him. He’s all electricity and spark but it’s a bit wild sometimes. You help him focus it. You’re amazing partners. I hope I have that someday,” and she sighed into her coffee.

Danny felt his cheeks flush, and covered it by eating another malasada. “You and Chin work well together, too, you know.”

She nodded, “But that’s mostly because we’ve known each other since we were kids.” She smiled. “I worshiped him, you know.”

Danny grinned back. “Hard not to do, he’s a great guy.”

“Yeah, he really is,” she whispered. “Thanks, Danny. For the talk, and the sugar.”

Danny stood up and patted her on the head. “Any time, rookie.”

“Hey, when do I get to stop being the rookie?” Kono laughed.

“Never,” he called over his shoulder as he left her office, leaving the bag of malasadas with her.

He wasn’t in his office too long before Steve came in, with their leftovers, which he’d reheated. “Here,” he said, handing Danny his. “You need some real food.”

Danny smiled. This he could get used to, he found himself thinking before he could stop it. “Thanks, babe.”

“How’s Kono?” Steve asked. “She like the malasadas?”

Danny laughed. “You saw that, did you?”

Steve gave him a look like he didn’t believe Danny’d thought he could pull that one over on him. “Yeah, Danno, I noticed.” He took a bite of his own food. “So, she doing ok?”

“Still shaken up, but she’s tough. I think it’s so much harder with Adam gone, but Chin’s staying with her, so that helps.” He smiled. “They’re really close, even for cousins. More like siblings, only without the fighting.”

Steve laughed softly. “Yeah, they’re lucky to have each other.”

“Mmmm,” Danny agreed around a mouth of leftovers, watching Steve for signs he would fall into a mope from the subject of siblings. “This re-heated really well, babe, thanks,” he said softly, pulling gently at Steve so he didn’t fall in that hole.

It worked, and Steve smirked. “Well, I guess I finally know how to get you to eat well.”

And, yeah, Danny blushed.

Steve sent Chin and Kono home early when it became too clear that neither of them had slept well since their ordeal, so when Steve got a call for a case later that afternoon, with Grover still in Chicago, it was up to him and Danny.

Fortunately, it was fairly straightforward, and it wasn’t terribly late by the time they finished. Still, by the time they made it to Danny’s they were starving, so Steve caved and let Danny order pizza, and while they waited for it, Danny packed. Or, rather, Danny threw things on the bed and Steve packed them for him.

Steve began making judgmental noises about Danny’s messiness, and Danny responded the only logical way, which was of course to make things messier. Unsurprisingly this turned into a bit of roughhousing, and Danny smiled contentedly as he mentally crossed that off his list for the day. The pizza came just as they had collapsed in a pile of laughter on the bed, and Steve eased up enough to not freak out when Danny simply brought the pizza in, and they ate it on Danny’s bed, watching some truly awful action movie on TV.

“Why don’t you have better TV?” Steve groaned after a completely unrealistic fight scene.

“Not here enough,” Danny mumbled around a mouthful of pizza, which earned him a “table manners” glare from Steve.

Steve looked like he wanted to say something more about that, but he didn’t, though it sure felt to Danny that Steve was considering something.

After they ate, Danny packed a few more things, while Steve wandered around his house. Which, in retrospect, had maybe not been terribly smart of Danny to allow Steve to do.

“So,” Steve began, leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen, while Danny cleaned out a few things that would spoil, or probably already had—Danny was not very good about keeping the kitchen stocked. “I see Charlie has his own room here now.”

Danny smiled. “Yeah,” he said on a bit of a sigh. “We did that at Christmas. He hasn’t slept in it yet, still a bit... hard.”

“You’ll get there, though, man, that’s great,” Steve replied with a soft smile. “So, where’s Melissa keep her stuff?” And he slipped that in so quickly, it caught Danny off guard. He stilled and held his breath.

Deciding to go with not-understanding, he mumbled “Huh?” and silently cursed himself. Never, if you have something you’d rather hide, let a Navy SEAL snoop around your house.

“Doesn’t she keep some stuff here? Only, you emptied all the drawers in your room, and I’ve been in every room in the house,” Danny glared at him for that, and Steve of course just smirked. “And I don’t see any traces of her at all. Seems a little strange, is all I’m saying.”

Danny sighed. “Yeah, well, that’s how she likes it.” Having finished with his cleaning, he leaned against the sink and ran a hand through his hair. “She’s used to not leaving a trace behind, it’s still a protective mechanism for her, I think. Plus, she’s not comfortable with what the kids might get into.” He smiled. “Can’t blame her for that one—Charlie is just barely out of the ‘open all the cupboards and take all the things out’ phase. It can be a little overwhelming, and she never had siblings, so she’s uneasy with it.”

Steve smiled a little at that, but it was kind of sad, and Danny suspected it wasn’t because he was remembering Mary as a kid, either. “You ok with that, buddy?” Steve asked, and yeah, that’s what Danny had been afraid of. Crap, he did not want to deal with this right now.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine, I mean, we’re both in really weird places right now anyway,” he sighed. “I can’t really ask more right now, you know?”

Steve “hmmed” but nodded. Then he looked around. “You done? Shall we go home?” And Danny wasn’t sure if Steve realized what he’d just said, but Danny did, and it made him feel very odd inside. Still, he smiled.

“Yeah, babe. Let’s go,” he said, turning out the light and following Steve to the door, trying really hard not to let himself feel relieved to be leaving his very empty, too-big house and going back to Steve’s, which maybe had a few ghosts, but at least felt occupied, and, he realized—in contrast to his own—filled with love.


	2. Wednesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little note about Charlie.
> 
> They haven’t really given us much about Charlie, except that if he had the treatment he would be ok, and that just a couple days after the transplant, he would be going home. I’m going with that, and having Rachel's lie to Danny be the focus, with the illness simply the means of exposing something she otherwise would have kept secret.

Wednesday was a fairly normal day as far as these things went. Danny once again sat on the beach while Steve swam, and he was really growing attached to his morning quiet time. Steve made them “real” food for breakfast, and they ate at the dining room table, which made Steve smile a smile that was a little less sad than at Monday night’s dinner. That made Danny kind of ridiculously happy. Danny made sandwiches for lunch while Steve got ready, and they once again made it into the office before Chin and Kono, and Danny half heartedly attempted to get Steve to talk about what they might say to the cousins if— _when_ —they noticed something was up. But Steve blithely brushed him off again, and, gifting him with another of those kisses on the cheek, swept out of Danny’s office, leaving Danny to curse his partner and try to calm down before the rest of the team showed up.

They had some follow up work to do on the case from the day before, but no new cases, and fortunately not a ton of paperwork. Chin took advantage of the extra time to do some upgrades on the computers, and this left the other three sitting in Steve’s office, chatting over a leisurely lunch.

“Do you have both the kids tonight, Danny?” Kono asked between mouthfuls of something delicious looking (evidently Chin, who was still staying with her, was a splendid cook. Danny would have been jealous, but he had Steve to cook for him—and he suppressed, with rather a lot of force, the warmth that threatened to rise when he thought of that).

He sighed. “Yeah, but just for the evening.” He set his sandwich down. “Charlie’s still not up to sleeping over, and it’s easier on him if she goes home with him.”

Kono smiled sympathetically, and Danny was fairly sure he saw her exchange a glance with Steve. “Well, make the most of it.... What do you have planned?” She asked.

Danny shrugged. “Just pizza and a movie, probably,” he said, and yeah, it sounded glum, he admitted.

“Sounds great to me,” Steve said, smiling, and Danny knew he was trying to be encouraging. He’d actually considered inviting Steve over, too, but Charlie wasn’t used to him yet, and he didn’t want it to be any more awkward than it already was, and yes, he realized that was a vague thought, and no, he wasn’t sure exactly which part he meant. He sighed.

“Yeah,” Kono agreed. “Time together is what’s important,” she said, and she leaned forward and patted Danny on the knee. And Danny was fairly sure he caught her trade another look with Steve.

As it turned out, they did have a reasonably nice evening, though Charlie got a bit crabby towards the end, and he just wasn’t comfortable enough with Danny yet to be soothed, so Grace had to manage, and Danny just hated that on seventeen different levels. So, by the time he got the kids home and made it back to Steve’s, he was feeling rather crabby himself. It didn’t really help that when he pulled up to Steve’s house he felt relief, and he was beginning to regret this whole “let’s stay together while we try and work this crap out” thing because he just knew that it was going to make going back to being alone that much harder. 

But when Danny opened the door, his sour mood and negative thoughts started to fade away... on a soft, soothing tide of, yep, guitar music. Danny’s breath hitched and he smiled, finding he had to bite his lip to hold back actual tears. He followed the sound to the study and out onto the lanai. Standing in the doorway listening to Steve play, Danny took several deep breaths, and allowed the music to wash over him.

Steve finished the song, then sat still for a moment. “I know you’re there, Danny. You gonna come out, or just keep standing there?”

Danny breathed out a laugh, and opening the door, stepped out to the lanai.

Steve set his guitar aside and pulled Danny down onto his lap. Danny fought back. “Are you kidding me, Steven?” He groused.

“Shhhhh,” Steve scolded, and held Danny tightly till he stopped fighting. Once Danny relaxed into it, he found he felt a lot more comforted than he wanted to admit. Steve rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek, and allowed him to get up. “So, how was it?” He asked, all kindness and concern.

“Eh,” Danny replied, sitting across from Steve. “It’s just hard, what with Charlie not really understanding who I am and all. He’s still young enough to really throw a fit when he gets tired, and he won’t be soothed by me when he’s like that, so Grace has to do it, and shit that hurts, you know? Watching my son trust my daughter more than he does me.” He shook his head, and looked up at Steve who was giving him those eyes. “Ugh, don’t give me that,” he warned. “I’ll get over it.”

“No you won’t, Danny,” Steve said sternly but kindly. “Of course you won’t. You can’t ever expect to get over something like this.”

Danny huffed out a laugh. “Gee, thanks, that helps.”

Steve sighed, and leaned forward. “Look, I just mean, this is all such a huge thing, ok? And, you’re expecting it to suddenly be ok, and it’s just not.” He sighed. “I get that I don’t really understand, you know? How can I? Not a dad. I know that’s just something huge that I can’t possibly get. But I kinda get it from the other side, ok? And yeah, it’s totally different, but... it’s just not something you get over. You learn to live with it, ok? And you find ways of making up for it, but you don’t just get over it. So, don’t try. That will just break you.”

Danny knew he had his “I’m about to cry” look on, when Steve stood and pulled him into a hug.

“Hey, buddy, I got you,” he whispered into Danny’s hair, and for some reason, that just was the tipping point, and Danny started to cry and couldn’t stop. Steve kept holding him and whispering “I got you,” and swaying a little, and Danny was kind of astonished at how many tears he was able to produce.

Eventually he stopped, and Steve pulled back, and wiped his tears away, and sighed. “Let’s get you to bed, buddy.” And he kept an arm around Danny, grabbed his guitar, and led them upstairs, where he pushed Danny towards the shower. When Danny was done, he came out to find Steve sitting in bed reading, and his heart did a little floppy thing when Steve put the book aside and held out an arm to Danny. “Come on, Danny. Come here.” And Steve must have seen that Danny had more tears before Danny had known it himself, because as soon as he landed at Steve’s side, the crying began again, and Steve was ready for it, and just held Danny against him and Danny couldn’t even think when he’d felt so secure, so safe, so comforted, and somehow that made his tears that much more emotional, and before he knew it he’d cried himself to sleep.

It was still dark out when Danny jolted awake. He had that hazy, achy feeling of having released a ton of emotions, but he was puzzled to note that he didn’t feel awkward about it. As good as Danny was about expressing his feelings to people (ok, Steve especially), Danny wasn’t actually terribly good expressing his emotions to himself—at least in the “getting them  _out_ ” sort of way. Which essentially meant that even though he thought about them a lot, he hadn’t really finished with them, hadn’t really “processed” them, if you will, until he had _shared_ them. And, he just didn’t really have someone he could share a lot of these emotions _with_. Melissa was sweet, and she was an amazing listener. But she was young, and she didn’t have any experience at all with family things, having essentially had none herself. And, honestly, Danny just hadn’t felt like he could burden her with the weight of all this. Because he was under no false pretenses that it was a burden, and a huge one at that. But it had been a heavy weight, and even he would admit, it had been dragging him down. Still, he was amazed at how much lighter he felt. Raw, but lighter. And surprisingly ok about having cried on Steve's shoulder.

Of course, it hadn’t taken long for Steve’s Super SEAL Senses to kick in, and he was stirring towards Danny—probably, Danny thought, wondering if he’d need to hold him more while he cried yet again. So Danny reached out to Steve, just to reassure him he was ok. But maybe Danny’s tears had brought something up for Steve, or maybe he just was affected by Danny’s emotions as well (and _that_ Danny mentally filed under “think about later”), because it suddenly seemed to Danny that Steve seemed like _he_ needed comforting.

“Hey, babe, it’s ok,” he whispered. “I’m sorry about before.”

Steve grunted somewhat angrily at that. “Danny,” he rasped out, sounding rather raw himself. “It’s the whole point of what we’re doing, ok? So, no apologizing.”

Danny smiled. And he was beginning to wonder how he’d thought Steve wasn’t very good with emotions, because he was seeming awfully wise to Danny at the moment. “Come here, babe,” he replied softly, and gathered Steve in his arms, and, maybe borrowing a page from Steve’s playbook, kissed him on the top of his head. It seemed to Danny that Steve practically purred at that, and he grinned contentedly as they both drifted off back to sleep.


	3. Thursday

Thursday was a fairly easy day. They got off work at a civilized hour, and went “home,” as Danny had started saying, though, to be honest, that had been something he’d tended to do, even before. Steve cajoled Danny into a swim, then they went up to their cozy spot on the upstairs lanai for some beers before making dinner.

“So, what have you told Melissa?” Steve said it casually, but Danny could feel the weight of the words, feel the need Steve had to understand. And it frightened him a little.

Danny sighed. “Just that things are a bit much right now, and I need to stay focused.” He closed his eyes and swayed a bit, trying to find the right words. “She... gets that. Well, she’s kind about it. I think I do it too much to her, but she’s more comfortable with my being stand-off-ish, given her past.” He opened his eyes to look at Steve. “Why? Why do you keep bringing her up? This is supposed to be about _us_.”

Steve bit back a laugh. “Why, Danny? And this _is_ about us. Well. About me, and about you. But I keep bringing it up, Danny.... Because it seems to me that you’re not really happy.”

Danny made an odd sound, almost threatening, practically a growl, and if he thought Steve would be frightened off by that, well. He should have known better. “You like to point out things I don’t seem to notice,” Steve began. “But have you noticed that you never talk about Melissa? And, I never see her. She doesn’t come along when we do stuff together. I know you spend more time with me than you do with her, even your free time.” He paused, trying, Danny knew, to get a look in his eyes, but Danny was resolutely avoiding eye contact, so Steve continued. “I think she’s safe,” he said, softly. “She’s not Rachel. She’s about as far from being Rachel as you could get. She’s never going to hurt you.” He paused, and sighed. “But is she ever going to help you?” Danny turned on him as if to ask what the hell that was supposed to mean. “I’m guessing,” Steve continued. “That you don’t let her in. Any more than you let me in, probably less, and, Danny, unlike me, she’s never going to push you on that. And I don’t think that’s what you need. I think you’re hiding, and she will let you.”

“But you won’t?” Danny bit out, and it was angry and it was hurt, and maybe it was defensive, and maybe it was just plain asking.

“Isn’t that what this,” and Steve made an almost Danny-like gesture, between them. “Is all about?”

Danny didn’t answer, and it was bad, he knew, but he went on the attack. “What about you, huh, Steven? What about Catherine?”

Steve flinched.

“Talk about hiding. Having a relationship with her, it was just the perfect thing for you, wasn’t it.” And Steve got a look in his eyes that was something beyond a glare, and it was full of warning and dripping in threat. But, Danny was not at all deterred. And, didn’t that just speak volumes. “It’s almost like you two are too much the same. You get each other. You think on the same wave lengths. But is that what you really want? Is that what you need? Or were you proposing to her to keep it safe? Because, she was never going to put you at the center of her universe. There were always going to be things that were more important to her than you. And I don’t think you want that. I think you want more. And I think that terrifies you. Because, Jesus, Steven, no one in your life has ever done that. No one has ever put you first.”

“You have.” And it was so soft, so completely not in line with the look that had just been in his eyes, and it was not a sudden realization, it was a long held truth. A treasured fact.

“What?” And that was maybe a bit more in surprise. Whether surprise that Steve knew it, or surprise that it was true, even Danny wasn’t sure.

“You have. You do.” And Steve was simply pointing out the obvious.

Danny looked at him, and it was half shock and half understanding. And he nodded. “Ok.”

Steve tilted his head in puzzlement.

“It was because of you.”

“What was?”

“Rachel. Charlie. All of it.” And he sighed, and buried his face in his hands. “I was supposed to meet them at the airport that night. To fly back to Jersey. _And I forgot_. Because I was so fucking worried about you.” He risked a look up at Steve. “She was never going to forgive that.” He took a deep breath. “She hates my work. She always has, and I just never... I never got it, really. But she actually _despises_ what I do, what I _love_ doing. It’s not just the fear and worry, either. There’s something else. I don’t know. But, she was never going to be able to forgive me when I put my work before jumping at her beck and call for that ridiculous sudden fleeing back to Jersey.” He paused, bit his lip, took another, deeper breath. “You. Not just work. But you.” And he stopped, and he sat there, looking into Steve’s eyes, everything so plainly exposed. “And, it doesn’t matter that I would have done that with any case, let alone what was actually happening. But I think she decided on that flight.” And tears had started rolling down his cheeks. “To lie to me about my child. To lie to Stan. To weave this deception, out of, what, spite? Jealousy? I don’t know. But what kind of human being does that? I just....”

And Steve grabbed him, pulled him to his chest, and held him while he sobbed out the pent up realizations, the disbelief, the hurt, the shock. 

Eventually he stilled, and Steve loosened his grasp so that Danny could pull back if he wanted, but he just pulled Steve closer, so Steve firmed his hold on Danny.

“Danny, I’m so sorry. I am so, so sorry.”

Danny sighed, and, voice muffled against Steve’s chest, where he seemed rather inclined to stay for the moment at least, he said, “Hey, I didn’t tell you that so you could blame yourself.” He sighed, and took a deep breath, and pushed on. “I told you that because I realized what she saw.”

He felt Steve go completely still. “What was that, Danny?”

“That she was never going to be _more_ important than you. Than my work.” A sigh. “Than _you_.” He huffed out a weak laugh. “I don’t know, maybe I can’t tell the difference anymore.” He settled back more solidly against Steve’s chest. “My family is important to me, you know that better than anyone, you _get_ that better than anyone. But Rachel needs to be more than that. She needs to be the only thing. And she would never be ok with this, with you, with my work.” And he laughed again, as he put the last piece in place. “With _me_.” He sighed softly, resignedly. “And maybe that’s why I just can’t think about what Melissa might think right now. Because either she’s ok with it, in which case, she’s ok with me,” he paused. Took a deep breath, and kind of shuddered. “Or, she’s not. And I can’t do that again.”

“Ok,” Steve said, to the top of Danny’s head. And he pressed a soft kiss there, and Danny was getting far too fond of that particular habit of Steve’s. “Ok. I get it.”

“Thank you,” Danny whispered, and snuggled more easily against Steve’s side, and they stayed like that for quite awhile.

Eventually they went downstairs for some food, then headed back up to bed. Together. As though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Just as they were drifting off to sleep, Steve whispered “You’re right Danny. I do want more.” And he didn’t clarify if he meant what Danny had said about someone putting him first, or if he meant something else, and Danny couldn’t bring himself to ask, so he let it hang there, replied with an equally ambiguous “Good,” and pulled Steve closer to him on a sigh.


	4. Friday

Friday made up for Thursday with more than its fair share of chases and shots fired and even explosions. Steve drove like a maniac, leapt without looking, went in without waiting for backup, and employed questionable interrogation techniques. Danny read him the riot act about procedure not once but twice, threatened to buy him a horse so he could navigate jumps better (which, hi, cars were not intended for), and reminded him that he had two children (about sixteen times). But Steve followed his instincts about a suspect, and five teenagers were saved from a fiery blaze because of it, and Danny admitted that waiting would have meant they were too late. Not for the first time.

Of course, admitting that didn’t mean Danny would stop yelling at Steve over procedure. And, actually, as Kono had pointed out, it was probably good that Danny did that—grounded the live wire that could be Steve in “mission” mode. There were times and places, though, and if Danny was honest, most of the time Steve got that now. But it was almost as though they balanced each other out—Steve’s too-ready-to-jump impulse with Danny’s too-ready-to-duck instinct—and though it maybe seemed a bit much, with all the yelling it usually included, in truth, maybe it was just what they both needed.

But, what happened when they embraced that was that some of the snarkier after-yelling comments they had both been doling out in the past rough months began to soften. Once they did the yelling they needed to, they faded more smoothly back into their normal, more loving, banter. 

Most importantly that day, everyone made it through unscathed, if somewhat ruffled around the edges. So when Chin suggested they all head out for drinks and some much needed food—and he offered to treat—well, no one said no.

The four of them settled easily into light chatter and friendly teasing, and despite the quantity of food they each consumed, they all managed to drink a bit more, and after a while they were drifting into a loose-tongued frame of mind.

Kono slipped first.

“So, you two doing better with the marriage counseling?” She kidded, only her tone was maybe a little laced with something more than just kidding. Chin snapped to attention when she said it, so maybe he’d been thinking something similar, or, some snide part of Danny’s mind unhelpfully supplied, _maybe they’d talked about it_.

Danny realized, too late, that Steve had his arm flung around Danny’s shoulders, as he, let’s be honest, frequently did. But even Danny had to admit, there was something a little different about the way they were sitting. Maybe they were closer, or more turned towards each other, or something, he wasn’t sure. But it suddenly occurred to him that to the two talented police officers across from them, there was likely a tangible difference.

And, dammit, this was why Danny had tried to get Steve, on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday, to talk about how they would address this. He didn’t dare look at Steve, but he was really quite certain that his partner was simply smirking, and that was _not_ going to help things. At all.

“Uh....” He managed, before he was saved, interestingly, by Chin.

“You just seem to be bickering less the past few days,” he said in his wonderfully chipper tone and Danny wanted to kiss him. “It’s nice.”

Danny laughed, and Steve pulled him a bit closer, somewhat possessively, and Danny was going to have to talk to him about that. “We try,” was the best Danny could manage, and he knew, just knew, that Steve’s smirk spread to dangerous proportions at that.

But then Steve surprised him by deflecting all on his own and asking the cousins if they were planning on surfing over the weekend, and Danny rewarded him with a pat on the leg, and maybe he left his hand there a little longer than he really needed to, but he was feeling very warm towards his partner, and dangit that was probably the booze talking, and ease up, Williams, he scolded himself. Fortunately he pulled himself back to the present in time to catch that the others were asking him if he’d join them for surfing on Saturday.

“Ah,” he sighed, “I’d love to, but I have the kids, and Grace and I promised to take Charlie to the aquarium.”

Kono smiled. “Sounds like fun, brah. Say hi to the seals for Steve,” and she winked at Steve.

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Steve replied.

“How long you have them for this weekend?” Chin asked softly, and Danny realized that Chin had probably overheard him yelling on the phone with Rachel about just that very topic, and knew it was not exactly going well.

Danny sighed. “I have Charlie just for the day on Saturday, but Grace is going to spend the night and stay till Sunday evening. It’s been hard to work out how to do it,” Danny took another drink. “We haven’t done anything... official... haven’t wanted to put him through that, on top of everything else, you know? So, it’s a negotiation each time.”

“Sounds rough, brah,” Chin said kindly.

“Yeah,” Danny said. And Steve pulled Danny even closer to him, and Danny was terrified for a minute that he was going to kiss him on the cheek again—in front of Chin and Kono. He didn’t, but Danny was sure he saw Kono notice something... charged... about Steve’s behavior. He sighed, and looked at Chin and said “Thanks for asking, Chin. It’s good to talk about it.” And he just knew that Steve grinned hugely at that, if only by the way Chin looked at Steve and then smiled knowingly.

Fortunately neither Chin nor Kono said anything further about the whole marriage counseling thing, and they resumed their chatter for a while, the other three planning a surfing date for Saturday. But they didn’t last much longer after that, as all four of them started yawning. Chin made a joke about being old, what was the rest of their excuses, and Kono punched him in the arm.

On the ride home Steve seemed more than usually contemplative, and Danny was feeling a little bit worried about that. “You gonna be ok on your own this weekend, babe?” He asked, and he tried to make it a kidding tone, but he wasn’t sure he succeeded.

Steve turned a sad but sweet smile on him. “Yeah, buddy, I’ll be fine. I just hope you have a good time with the kids,” and he reached a hand out and put it on Danny’s arm. “I know it’s not as much as you want, but try to enjoy it for what it is, ok?”

And Danny’s breath caught a little. Steve was always so solicitous of his limited time with the kids, and he’d tended to take it simply as a friend being concerned, but suddenly he realized there was a whole other layer there he’d been missing. Of course. Kids getting time with their dad. He groaned inwardly. How had he not seen that? He smiled, and grabbed Steve’s hand and held it. “Thanks, babe. I’ll try.”

They rode the rest of the way home in easy silence, slightly sad but thoughtful smiles on their faces, and some odd new warmth blossoming somewhere deep in Danny’s chest.

Their nighttime routine was already pretty solidified, in just a few evenings. They negotiated the one bathroom as though they’d been doing it for ages, and it occurred fleetingly to Danny that there was a whole other bathroom only feet away, but it just would have felt strange to use it for some reason, a thought which he dropped as suddenly as it had come, not wanting to examine too closely just how quickly they had fallen into such an intimate routine. They might bicker, and even fight, essentially at the drop of a hat, but one thing they had never been was physically uncomfortable around each other. From the very beginning, they had just been at ease with each other’s bodies, and as they’d spent more time in close proximity because of their work, that ease had quite swiftly grown into something decidedly more. Something Danny was beginning to admit could, and probably should, be called intimacy. Even if it was completely non-sexual, it was satisfying in a similar way, and the soothing they both gained from their closeness was tangible. Danny had tentatively begun to catalog the kinds of physical connection Steve seemed to need—something he had probably already known, but never really paid close attention to before. And, as he did that, he had reluctantly begun to admit his own list, which—and he sighed deeply at the thought—was expanding rapidly to include the more tender gestures Steve had been adding since they’d begun staying together, like the kisses to the top of Danny’s head.  

Once they were both settled in bed, Steve pulled Danny to him. “I’m going to miss you,” he whispered to Danny’s hair.

Danny huffed out a laugh. “For one night, babe,” he gave Steve’s arm a squeeze. “I think you’ll manage.” But as Danny said it, he admitted he was more than a little worried for himself. Melissa didn’t sleep over when Grace did, so Danny would be alone. And he wasn’t at all sure he liked that idea in the least. Steve "hmmed" and kissed Danny’s head, and Danny couldn’t help it, he smiled and snuggled back against Steve with a contented sigh. “I’ll miss you, too,” he admitted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...You probably guessed it, Part Four will be the weekend. I'm hoping to post it next weekend.


End file.
